Change Health Disparities Wiki
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), Health is defined as a state of physical, mental and social well-being and not just the absence of disease. Question 1: What is the problem? What evidence is there? The Universal Health Coverage, which is a principal that encourages leaders to make steps towards ensuring that every individual has access of health, without any financial burden. However, there are significant concerns within the health disparities that affect the health disparities in communities of developing and third world countries. It was found that disparities in health are often severe (Thomson, Mitchell, & Williams, 2006), which results in individuals within these environments being exposed to a variety of diseases, with limited and sometimes no access to healthcare services because of geographical, financial and availability of services (Habib, Perveen, & Khuwaja, 2016; Peters et al., 2008). What is the effect of the problem? These health inequalities are more common in developing and third world countries, which cause a significant burden of disease. For example, treatable conditions such as HIV/AIDs, Malaria and Tuberculosis are leading causes of death, and are often preventable. However, a lack of education, ignorance, financial hardships and leadership contribute to the overall epidemic. What is the scale of the problem? Health conditions in countries such as Africa and other third and developing countries is debilitating. * An estimated 20 million people live with HIV (53% of the population) in Southern and Eastern Africa, 6 million people in Western and Central Africa and 5 million in Asia and the Pacific * Tuberculosis is a leading cause of death of persons infected with HIV. Question 2: ''' '''What needs to be changed? There are significant steps that can be undertaken that improve the lives of people that experience these inequalities. Firstly, changes need to be made at a leadership level away from an authoritarian figure to a leader than enhance and motivates their followers. What solutions exist? It is necessary for a leader to understand that there is a complex and multifaceted interaction between people. Consumers of health will likely benefit if they are nurtured to learn, grow and improve from health system (Gilson & Agyepong, 2018). While, leaders can benefit by reducing the burden of disease, increasing productivity & income (Thornton et al., 2016) and overcoming health deficiencies. These leaders can make a difference that transcends time and changes the lives of the people they represent. Question 3: Evidence for the effectiveness of the solution? Several independent studies exploring leadership-related interventions were found as effective. However, a study by Govender, Gerwel Proches, and Kader (2018) reported that these interventions were crucial to health service delivery. Moreover, Ezeh (2015) reported that leaders must recognise the importance of reducing the health disparities, especially in countries such as Africa to better the health landscape. For example, Nelson Mandela was a great leader who strove to make health accessible, while promoting changes to allow children to have access to vaccines. Question 4: Short term effects of these solutions on: # People - Individuals are treated for debilitating conditions, and there may be increased costs to society because of the resources needed to cater for them # Environment - Costs to improve access to water, provide improved air quality and other environmental factors can be costly and could pose a challenge to leaders and policy makers alike. # Society - Increased cost of treatment, health services and education programs. In addition, there are some level of ignorance and conformity to what already exists that must be overcome. Some leaders will advocate for the implementation of these new changes for the better of society. Long term effects of these solutions on: # People - Individuals are productive and are less likely to be a burden to society. In addition, these individuals have greater control of their health, are empowered and mortality/morbidity decreases. # Environment - The environment has a significant effect on the health of individuals. People in developing countries are 15x more likely to experience premature mortality because of the environment (Remoundou & Koundouri, 2009). Mitigating the impact of health-damaging environmental resources such as poor water and air quality can significantly improve the lives of people who experience the greatest inequalities of health. # Society - Improved productivity, empowered individuals and people are no longer a burden to society. In addition, this will produce a positive cycle for improved health outcomes. Question 5: Potential challenges/risks and overcoming challenges/risks: The first potential challenge that would need to be overcome when implementing these solutions is leadership. An empowering leader can provide individuals with improved autonomy (Cai, Cai, Sun, & Ma, 2018). In comparison, authoritarian leaders were linked to causing increased violence and low performance among employees (Jiang, Chen, Sun, & Yang, 2017). Thus, a potential challenge that would need to be overcome is finding an ideal leader that will strive to enhance the lives of his followers. This is a particular challenge especially in authoritarian like countries because many individuals have become accustomed to the dictator ship, which may cause further instability. In addition, established structures such as the military would need to be overcome as they express considerable power following an authoritarian leader. To overcome this, there needs to be a considerable time invested in the project, it is often assumed that short-term intervention by political leaders can have fast effects, but this is not the case (Mietzner, 2011). Furthermore, another obstacle that needs to be overcome when introducing health policy for distribution is to ensure that there is no unequal distribution. In addition, individuals who are experiencing the greatest levels of ill health must be targeted first. Thus, when implementing health policy, a multi-sectoral approach is required to ensure that there is an equitable distribution of health(Gopalan, Mohanty, & Das, 2011) Question 6: What are the success metrics? How can you measure success of intervention/solutions you propose? How can you prove the success of these solutions over time? References: Latest activity Photos and videos are a great way to add visuals to your wiki. Add one below! Category:Browse